Art Elements Theme of the Month :: Spring

Each month the crew over at the Art Elements Blog take turns and offer up a general theme to get folks' creative juices going.  For March Niky Sayers chose the theme of "Spring."  Perfect timing as so many of us are officially over winter.  So I'm going to start out this post by apologizing for it's length.  What can I say... the thought of the coming Spring was very inspiring!

The very first thing I made, on the very first day of the month were these sweet rabbit earrings.  I drew on the idea of the good luck superstition where you say "rabbit, rabbit" upon waking on the first day of the new month.  I may not have said the words, but I made the rabbit rabbit earrings right away!  I paired the adorable enameled charms by Lindy's Designs with some resin opaline rounds and blackened findings.

Apparently, not only was this month about Spring, but on my bead table it was also about enameled elements!  I recently picked up some great bird and blooms charms/pendants from Blue Hare Art Wear that felt just perfect for some early Spring designs.  These necklaces are both all about the subtle first blush of the season...  more subtle colors instead of the bright riot of color to come.  

For this first necklace I cut the sweetness of the pale pinks and blues with black Czech glass beads that play off the black in the pendant design.  Vintage resin beads were the starting point of the design with glass and rose quartz added in to round things out.

The enameled pendant in this second necklace is a bit smaller than the first but I gave it some additional heft with a fun leafy link connector.  I played off the pinks and pale yellows in the pendant for the beaded links that are a combination of Czech glass and resin.  I can't say that I'm known for working with these sweet pastels, but I do love how these two designs turned out!

Per my usual chaotic designing style, after I finished this first batch of jewelry I grabbed a bunch of other art bead goodies to hang out on my bead table.  Spring had definitely sprung on my bead mat!  While several ideas were marinating at the back of my brain, I whipped up another pair of bunny earrings.  This time I used some little pale blue ceramic bunny charms from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.  I paired them with some coordinating Czech glass flowers and rondelles.  I also made a quick pair earrings with some cute floral charms from Golem Design Studio and coordinating silk cocoons by my friend Anna Pierson of SagaHus Components.

Keeping with the muted pastels I whipped up a sweet little bracelet with a Humblebeads house bead (as well as one of Heather's discs) and a mix of cultured & Czech glass, lucite, and brass findings.  Bracelets aren't always my thing, but I really am smitten with how this one turned out.  It was also the perfect use for some Czech glass melons I've had in my stash forever.  Score!

Next up, a necklace that I still haven't decided if I can part with yet as I switched my designing into shades of green.  I just love the wood pendant that was a collaboration between siblings Cynthia Thornton of Green Girl Studios and Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery.  (I'm sad I didn't grab more than one when they were offering these.)  There are so many sweet details in the design... my favorite being the tiny little snail on the right side.  This piece spoke to me of the first emerging leaves and sprouts and leaves of the season and I chose beads accordingly.  There's quite a bit of Czech glass along with freshwater and cultured pearls and a few moon glow lucite beads.

Continuing with shades of green, I finally made something with some little polymer clay leaves that I made in a workshop with Heather Powers a while back.  I had already made little wire bails for them but for some reason never finished whatever design that I had envisioned.  I decided that it was past time to get them completed.  I ended up pairing them with some rustic lampwork glass (maker unknown) along with Czech glass.  

Next up I went for a bit of a brighter green.  Spring makes me think birds and thus feathers.  I picked up this fun little set of ceramic beads from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio at Bead & Button and fished them out for this prompt.  I made beaded links with the ceramic accent beads, some chunky Czech glass beads, as well as some filigree rounds.  

I just kept trucking through the pile of goodies I had pulled out to celebrate Spring (and, let's not pretend... I kept adding to the mess with more and more options too!)  I whipped up a couple more pairs of earrings to with some sweet spring charms I've been holding onto for way too long.   I paired some sweet daisy charms in polymer clay from Humblebeads with tiny lampwork beads, Czech glass, and brass (similar to the ones I used in this month's Honey Do List challenge.)  Next I used some faux tin charms by my friend Anna Pierson of SagaHus Components for a pair of earrings with purple moon glow lucite and copper accents.

 

With this next necklace I may finally be done with officially making for the Spring prompt.  We shall see.  At least I'll be done as far as my blog post goes!  Photos aren't doing it justice but I had to finally play with this luminous pendant from Humblebeads.  I picked beads that had a similar glow to them including a LOT of Czech glass with Mercury finish and some pale green resin rounds.  To go with the gold accents on the pendant I went with some gold filled and gold plated spacer beads and findings.

Phew!  That's a lot of new jewelry!  I hope you enjoyed these new Spring designs.  Here's to warmer (and longer!) days, blooming flowers, nesting birdies, and all the other special things that the new season will bring.

Art Elements Theme of the Month :: Snowflakes

Fittingly enough for the crazy winter weather that has spread across most of the United States this month, Jennifer Cameron chose the theme of Snowflakes for the February Art Elements Theme of the Month.  Little did she know when she picked it...  While much of the country is getting rocked by the extreme weather, it's mostly just been bone chillingly cold here in Minnesota.  So, basically, business as usual!  

It's pretty hard to design for Spring when you are in the depths of winter (at least for me!) so this theme was perfect for where my head was at this month.  Maybe after this round of designs both me and the weather will have the heavy snow and crazy cold out of our systems!  A girl can dream.

I was lucky enough to snag some gorgeous snowflake cabs from the talented Lisa Peters Russ at the end of last year.  This challenge gave me the excuse to play with a couple of them before the spring thaw... and I'm so happy I did.  I'm also pretty proud of myself for taking on a more ambitious project right out of the gate!  

I started out with the big snowflake shield cab from Lisa (I had already glued that one and two smaller shield shapes down to backing) since I had an inkling of an idea for it.  Since the cab was sizable I wanted to play around with some vintage crystal components that I had picked up for just such an occasion.  It's hard to see in the picture but the large center element has two holes while the smaller side ones have just one center hole.  I used small clear silver lined seed beads to attach the crystal elements.  I played with a new to me technique for filling in the background at the top... a sort of random sewing down of one bead at a time.  As luck would have it, once I got the pendant all finished, I discovered that I had the perfect dyed silk ribbon to compliment it.  Such an easy and elegant solution for finishing the necklace!

Still on a bead embroidery kick, I completed a second smaller snowflake pendant.  I just love Lisa's pieces!  Since this cab was a smaller scale to begin with, I did an extra row of beads around the entire thing.  For a fun, frosty affect I did a picot edge around the pendant with a nice grey pearly colored size 15.  I'm still not sure how I will finish it into a necklace, but that's a problem for another day!

I was in the process of putting some new(ish) purchases away when I realized that the TierraCast charms I had gotten had a snowflake looking pattern on one side (the other is very much floral).  So I went digging through some other homeless supplies hanging out on (i.e. cluttering up) my bead table to whip up these sparkly snowflake earrings.  Hard to tell from the photo, but the bead caps are a snowflake pattern.

I still have some other snowflake goodies hanging out on my bead table, but the sun is out and I may opt for some tropical designs next!

Art Elements Theme of the Month :: All Things Christmas

 

It's been a while since I have made enough for one of the Art Elements themed challenges to warrant a blog post, but I've actually been fairly busy with holiday themed items lately for a series of online shows I've been a part of over in my friend Anna Pierson's Sagahus Components Facebook Group.  Yay!  

I made a little collection of earrings using upcycled tins pairing them with snowflake charms and really fun Italian glitter resin.  I think my favorites are the ones with the embossed silver snowflakes that I cut from some small storage/gift tins that I snatched up last year at Michael's after the holidays.  

I also made a few more wintery versions of my etched copper earrings that use the leftovers from my Christmas ornaments.  I like the combination of the copper evergreen patterns with pewter charms and luckily I had the perfect niobium ear wires in grey with copper accents.  

I don't always buy a ton of holiday specific artisan beads, but this year maybe I just felt the need for a little extra Christmas cheer.  I snagged some fun enameled charms from Lindy's Designs (left and right below) that I paired with more of the Italian glitter resin.  The middle pair of earrings below are some adorable, slightly mismatched poinsettia ceramic charms by Golem Design Studio paired with vintage German marbled resin and Czech glass.

Necklaces featuring artisan beads with some holiday flair were also on my creative docket.  I bought a set of partridge and pear ceramic lentils from Golem Design Studio at Bead & Button last year and I knew I wanted to make a tree for the little bird!  I used the general idea from one of Heather Power's tutorials to shape the tree out of copper wire and then hammered the whole frame to work harden it.  I then filled in the tree with a mix of seed beads, Czech glass, and Swarovski crystal pearls in colors to coordinate with the ceramic bead.  The middle necklace features a whimsical reindeer enameled pendant by Lindy's Designs strung with tons of Czech glass and some lavender candy jade.  The necklace on the right is a stack of polymer clay goodies from Humblebeads.  Love the the little red bird, it's sweet nest, and the snow kissed pinecone she made.  I added a few elements including some copper plated branches and Czech glass beads.    

If you've been following my creative journey on Instagram or Facebook you know that I've been having lots of fun with beer bottle caps and bead embroidery.  Bell's Brewery has some of the best bottle caps around for their seasonal beers.  They had a holiday ale with a cute Christmas tree on it that has become a couple of pins so far... and I'm still hoping to make one more as a gift but it will probably be late.  The middle pin below is the Fulton Brewing logo but it kind of made me think snowflake surrounded by silver.

Last but not least, I made another batch of saltwater etched Christmas ornaments this year.  It's a fun but sometimes frustrating process as you don't always get a clean or deep etch.  I only had one true failure this year... so that's good!  I really should do some non holiday, non ornament etching at some point... or at least start using some of those things I've done in the past.  New Year's resolution maybe??  

I hope you've enjoyed my little tour through this year's holiday makes!  Wishing you all a joyful holiday season!

Art Elements Theme of the Month :: Blue

 

The September Art Elements Theme of the Month is much more wide open than usual... it's all about the color blue!  

I knew that it was finally time to stop hoarding my pair of gorgeous blue jay feather charms from Artisticaos.  What challenge could be more perfect??  At first I thought I'd be able to pair the porcelain feathers wth some new dark blue moonglow lucite... but the two things were just fighting each other too much.  I had to come up with something else lightweight.  A lovely pair of dark blue and grey streaked polymer clay rounds from Humblebeads ended up being just the thing to complete the design.

I had already made up the little moonglow lucite links so I was determined to find something in my stash to pair with them.  Luckily, I had some pretty charms from Golem Design Studio that fit the bill!  (If you aren't familiar with Golem, their ceramic beads and pendants are all carved and glazed by hand.  Amazing!)  

Lastly, a piece that I shared in progress last month for the Mandala theme... but it certainly fits the blue theme perfectly as well!  So here it is all done!  The beautiful cobalt cab is by Jenny Davies-Reazor.  This piece got a little too big for me to be a pendant... so I added a pin back to make it a brooch.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.  I hope you like my little foray into the color blue this month.    

Art Elements Theme of the Month June 2020 :: Summer Solstice

The Art Elements Theme of the Month is appropriately the Summer Solstice.  I do so love the long days of summer... although since the Solstice has come and gone I know that they will be getting shorter from here.  Sigh.  Anyway, I focused on the sun for my two designs this month.  Looking on the bright side of life and all that!

For my first design I revisited the idea of doing a bead embroidered bezel around a bottle cap.  Bell's Oberon is a summer seasonal...  a great patio beer that I've been known to enjoy in the warmer months.  

I had one another sunny, summery pendant in my stash so it was time for some stringing!  I paired a lovely hand painted wooden pendant by Ashley Bonney of Summer Wind Art with a fun mix of beads.  It's hard to tell in my photos, but the sun itself is a lovely gold paint... thus my decision to use raw brass chain and findings.  I started pulling beads with the blue tones... I used a mix of Czech glass, faceted Angelite, and Aquamarine.  I pulled in a tiny bit of green with a trio of green lampwork glass beads (artists unknown) and wood tones with some coconut discs.

Here's hoping that the humidity here breaks and I get some patio time this weekend... in the shade of the umbrella.  This summer is going to be a little different than past years but I'm going to embrace it all for what it is.  Who knows, maybe it's time to pick up a new six pack of Oberon!

Art Elements Theme of the Month May 2020 :: Butterflies

I love me some butterflies and moths so I was a happy girl when I saw the Art Elements Theme of the Month challenge was all about butterflies!  I may have an embarrassing amount of butterfly art beads... so the biggest problem for this challenge was deciding what to use.

I had to start with some beautiful faux tin butterfly charms from Humblebeads that came with cute decorative copper charms attached.  The just seemed perfect for Springtime!  Of course I had to dig around for the perfect Humblebeads discs to coordinate with the charms.  Instead of going with a super matchy bead on the top, I picked a Czech glass flower in a bolder coral color to make it pop.

I had also just snagged a few pairs of enameled butterfly and moth charms from Blue Hare Art Wear in a recent show so of course I had to whip up a sweet little pair of earrings with some of those!

Next up, I made a long necklace with a gorgeous butterfly wing pendant by Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati.  This was a special edition piece that she made only for her Simple Truths Sampler Club.  Pictures really don't do this little treasure justice (especially mine since lighting was iffy when I took them.)  There is a lovely iridescence to it that I wish you could see.  I strung the pendant with tons of yummy Czech glass and Swarovski Pearls with gold plated chain at the back.

Even though I had tons of other butterfly charms and pendants, I turned my focus toward my newest obsession, bead embroidery!!  Even though I took some classes on the Bead Cruise a few years ago, for some reason this year really got me excited about doing more with it.  (I'm hoping to share a little post soon sharing a bit of my bead embroidery journey.)  Anyway, the rest of my designs took a little more time as I learn and play with this new medium.

First up is my very first totally original design... this is the piece I'm most proud of this month.  The idea started with a butterfly shaped porcelain button from Round Rabbit that I've had lingering for years.  When I started plotting it out I thought I could keep it to a nice rounded square shape.  As I worked on it though it continued to grow and morph into a more organic shape.  Here's a little peak at the progression this pendant took in its shape and orientation. 

And drumroll please.... here's the finished pendant!  I'm so happy with the texture and movement I managed to get in the background.  I think it feels really rich.  I'm currently wearing this one on some simple brass chain.  The pendant makes enough of a statement all on its own!

I wanted to let you see the back of this one too.  I used some cork for the backing instead of the more traditional ultra suede. 

My last completed piece is a pendant with a gorgeous ceramic cab by Lisa Peters Russ that I got in another recent Facebook sale.  I'm still pretty new to doing peyote bezels, so every time I successfully bezel something I'm over the moon!  I had fun picking out different bead colors and textures for this one trying to echo the colors in the cab.  I used a navy blue ultra suede for the back of this pendant and plan to just hang it from chain.  I can assure you it was unintentional, but I like the way the top loop echoes the shape of the flower detail at the bottom.  Happy accident!

I didn't quite get my last piece done, but it's ready to trim and get it's backing now.  This is another fabulous cab by Lisa Peters Russ.  This one has a nice matte finish.  Wanting to add a pop of the red and corals from the cab's flower, I gave this one a little crown of flowers to match.  I feel like being a seed bead hoarder is finally paying off since I have tons to choose from for bead embroidery projects!  I need to decide if I'll do a simple brick stitch edge or go for a pretty picot.  If you have opinions on that, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks so much for stopping by to see my little collection of butterfly designs!

Art Elements Theme of the Month April 2020: Bees

When I first saw that the April Theme of the Month from the Art Elements blog was bees, I was equal parts excited and nervous.  I actually had a moment where I was worried that I wouldn't have much to choose from in my stash since I made a whole bunch of bee jewelry last year for a different challenge.  It was clearly a needless concern... (and full disclosure, I found a few more things after I took this picture!)

The first thing I whipped up for this month's challenge was a cute little pair of earrings with beehive charms from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio.  Since yellow isn't always the best seller for me (sad face) I decided to pair the ceramics with some lightweight polymer clay discs with honey yellow, bronze, and turquoise from Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  I topped things off with an extra pop of blue from a little Czech glass bead.

Next, I decided to put together a little bracelet rich in art beady goodness.  I took a set of coin beads from Humblebeads and just added a few extra beads to the mix.  As much as I love the colors and textures in this set, I've been at a loss as how to best use them.  I ended up getting inspired by an old bracelet design that Heather shared ages ago... it was the perfect way to get these cuties out of my stash and into the world!

I knew that I wanted to make at least one buzzy bee necklace.  The obvious place to start was with one of the lovely hand painted wood pendants from Summer Wind Art.  I had picked out some Czech glass flower beads to go with one of them a while back, but hadn't circled back to the design until now.  Since I'm kind of guilty of going monochromatic sometimes, I really wanted to push beyond the blues for this one.  I chose some lovely faceted citrine rondelles to break things up and echo the golden yellow from the bee's body and the center of the flower.

Since I had my box of yellow beads out already for the citrines in the last design, it only made sense to whip up one more necklace that used mostly beads from that same box!  (I'm not the only one who logics my creative flow this way, am I??)  Anyway, I wanted to give the the cute little bee and honeycomb pendant from Humblebeads a little more physical and visual heft and a little Yellow Jade nugget was just the thing!  I made bead links with Czech glass in both an ivory Mercury glass finish and yellow/amber, faceted golden blood quartz, and some fun copper hexagons from Allegory Gallery.

Here's a closer look at the front and the back of the pendant.  It would be just as pretty worn backwards!

This is a blog hop.  Please check out what the other participants were inspired to make!

AE team:

Niky

Sue

Jenny

Jen

Cathy

Marsha

Guests:

Tammy

Cat

Alysen

Kathy

Sarajo (you are here)

Kelly

Evie and Beth

Hope

Art Elements Theme of the Month March 2020: Gnomes!

It's been quite a while since I've played along with the Art Elements Theme of the Month challenges.  Life's just been a bit busy and chaotic.  Now in these unprecedented times of COVID-19 and the need for social distancing, I have no excuse to not find some time at the bead table and play along!  Plus, it was impossible to pass up Gnomes as a theme!

Much like our hostess, Jenny Davies-Reazor, I adored the book Gnomes by Poortvliet and Huygen.  I didn't have a copy but one of my sisters did and I would sneak into her room to read it.  (She wasn't all about the sharing with her little sister.)  I did have some little plastic gnome figurines though.  I still have them (see the picture I made Eric take below) but seem to have lost the mini version of the book that came with them.  It's probably around somewhere... possibly batted under a piece of furniture by naughty kitties.

The first thing I grabbed to play with for this challenge was a pair of gnome earring charms by Blue Hare Art Wear.  I actually got these cuties as a gift with a purchase a while back.  I think they are just so stinkin' fun with their stylized design and those little red button noses!  I added some red fire agate and little turquoise crystals on top to go with the subtle stripes in their little hats.

As luck would have it, right around the time this challenge was announced, my friend Heather Powers of Humblebeads did a special batch of woodland beads including her sweet little gnomes.  I knew I had to have one for this, and I was able to snatch one up!  I used the gnome as part of a charm cluster for a necklace, pairing him with some coordinating Czech glass flowers and beads.  Since the flowers were mostly blue, I wanted to get some more pops of red in the design so I added some links to one side of the necklace then balanced it with a bit of heavier chain on the other sided.  I'm pretty tickled with how this one turned out!

Ok, this last pair of earrings isn't directly gnome themed, but I could totally see some gnomies hanging out lounging under or on these cute little mushrooms.  Heather Powers also made these adorable polymer clay charms.  I paired them with some yummy red Czech glass that has a luster to its finish and tiny teal crystals.  The findings are all Vintaj Natural Brass and are nickel and lead free.

This is a blog hop!  Stop by and see what everyone else was inspired to make!

AE team:

Marsha

Cathy

Jen

Jenny

Lesley

Claire

Niky

Guests: 

Tammy. 

Linda

Hope

Cat

Sarajo  - you are here